An electrifying howl that could be even louder

The Distillers

“Coral Fang” (Reprise)

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Brody ARMSTRONG is a flat-out star, a punk-spirited singer-songwriter who lashed out at the world and inner demons on the Distillers’ first album, last year’s “Sing Sing Death House,” with a straitjacket desperation that rock hasn’t felt since Courtney Love’s “Live Through This” album almost a decade ago with Hole.

In the new album, Armstrong’s vocals continue to electrify us in places, providing some tracks -- from the scathing “Dismantle Me” to the gentler, though still anxious, acoustic treatment of “The Hunger” -- that are so absorbing they wouldn’t have been out of place on that radical Hole album.

At times, however, “Coral Fang” seems sluggish, as if the band felt the pressure of enormous expectations as it moved to a major label. Despite the fire in such song titles as “Drain the Blood” and “Die on a Rope,” the lyrics at times feel a bit generic and the arrangements a touch too polished. Still, there is enough fire in the album to ignite a major career for the band.

-- Robert Hilburn